THOROUGHLY MODERN MOLLY

Blair Brown pays the mortgage on her New York apartment, schedules baby sitters for her 5-year-old son and routinely catches the Red Eye to Los Angeles for work on her own TV show. At first glance, she is like one of those perfect women in the hair-spray commercials who wows them all day at the office, then races home to whip up a spectacular gourmet meal for that special man, looking absolutely gorgeous, and remains irresistibly charming throughout the entire ordeal.

While Brown's life appears, at least on the surface, to be the model of professional success and personal happiness, championing the image of the modern-day superwoman is definitely not what she aspires to do in her NBC TV series, The Days and Nights of Molly Dodd (9:30 p.m. Thursday, WPTV-Ch. 5, WSVN-Ch. 7).

As created for Brown by Jay Tarses, the show's writer, director and producer, Molly Dodd is a modern-day eccentric - a drifter, poet, daydreamer and failed jazz singer who tosses and turns alone each night in her New York apartment. She has Brown's captivating smile, dark red hair, wind-chime voice and boundless TV charisma but, probably unlike anyone else on episodic television blessed with such an embraceable face, Molly sometimes snaps at the people she cares about. While smart and funny, she is also a bit of a nut.

"When we started this," Brown says, "all the women's roles on television were about the good woman, who is always capable, always loving, always understanding. The good mother, fabulous wife and successful careerist. It was just like, ugghh, impossible, nauseating. Molly just has more edge and isn't always the nicest guy in the world. And I think that's real good and particularly interesting to see in a woman, because traditionally men have been gruffer and that's considered charming in a man. But in a woman, it's just considered bitchy."

In a TV age dominated by women characters such as Meredith Baxter Birney's "Mom" in Family Ties and Phylicia Rashad's "Mom" in The Cosby Show, who both have it all and love it, Molly celebrated her 35th birthday by confessing that she hadn't arrived at the place in work, love and life that she had been trained to believe would always be hers.

Despite her sadness, the ex-husband who still haunts her daydreams and her rather imperfect work life, Molly perseveres, her spirit, curiosity and zest for life delightfully intact.

Brown suggests that Molly, with all her flaws and failures, is as vital a role model for women and men as the TV women who tell their audiences week after week that they can and should be smart, beautiful, successful at work and blissful at home.

"I think the notion of that sort of achievement is a bit of a bust," Brown says. "It was a necessary step in helping women to evolve into being able to play different kinds of roles in this culture. But there's every reason to champion this person as well - a person who has a very positive and good influence in the world.

"What I like about what this show communicates is that it's the story of a very individual and eccentric person - like everybody is. But we live in a country that reinforces conformity all the time. And I like that this person, who is just out of step, survives and does fine and has a lot of heartbreak and keeps a hold of herself - keeps her sense of humor and a sense of perspective."

Tarses, who co-created the darkly sophisticated comedy Buffalo Bill several years ago, is known for ignoring the conventions of prime-time television. Indeed, Molly Dodd was one of the first TV dramedies - blends of drama and comedy minus the laugh track. However, Tarses says that what makes this show special is Brown.

"She nails this stuff," he raves. "She makes it work all the time. She moves without the ball like a good basketball player. She's listening, she's thinking, she's setting picks for you."